Buzz Knight and Cousin Brucie: A Walk Through Rock Music History and Nostalgic Memories of Radio's Golden Age

Summary

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Takin’ A Walk – Music History with Buzz Knight

Episode: Buzz Knight and Cousin Brucie: A Walk Through Rock Music History and Nostalgic Memories of Radio's Golden Age

Date: January 20, 2026
Guest: “Cousin Brucie” (Bruce Morrow)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Buzz Knight takes a stroll down memory lane with legendary radio personality Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow), whose iconic voice shaped the soundscape of American radio from the heyday of WABC to WCBS-FM. The conversation spans Brucie's career origins, the communal power of radio, pivotal musical eras like the British Invasion, radio industry evolution, and the essence of forging genuine audience connections. Throughout, Brucie’s warmth, storytelling prowess, and undimmed passion for music and radio shine.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Who Would You Take a Walk With?”

[01:24–02:41]

• Brucie’s immediate answer: his wife Jody, whom he calls his “best friend.”
• If choosing from musical or historic figures: Paul McCartney, Leslie Gore, Ronnie Spector, and Benjamin Franklin (“I’d want to know about that kite with the key, if that’s true.”).
• Reflects on the genie-in-the-bottle nature of the question and the importance of relationships.

2. The Origin of “Cousin Brucie”

[02:48–07:41]

• The nickname came during a drive through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, having heard a voice say, “Cousin, Cousin Brucie. Drive carefully, cousin.”

• Pitched the name to his program director, who initially dismissed it as “the corniest thing I’ve ever heard” and “this is New York City, not cheese-quaker Morgantown.”

• Brucie insisted: “We all love our cousins…they give us the best treats and toys.”

• He used “Cousin” on-air excessively that first night, resulting in a flood of telegrams from listeners—leading to a 10-year contract.

• Central insight: “Familiarity breeds content.” People want connection and someone they feel is family, especially in hard times.

  “When I go on the air, cousin Buzz, it's like I’m talking to you one on one right now. There might be a lot of people… I'm talking to one person. That’s how my whole career has gone.” — Cousin Brucie [06:53]

3. Lessons in Audience Engagement & Authenticity

[07:41–09:03]

• Communication is deeply personal; success comes from addressing listeners as individuals, not as a crowd.
• Criticizes formulaic or scripted interviews: real connection requires listening, not just reading questions.
• Echoes advice for podcasters and broadcasters: “When you start reading notes, you’re not listening. …When I'm on the air with my cousins…if you don’t listen, you’re not doing your job.” [08:33]

4. Early Days & Challenges in Bermuda

[09:03–11:38]

• Brucie’s first job in Bermuda: “They used to call me the Hammer in Bermuda,” because of his energetic delivery and bringing rock ’n roll to the conservative island.
• Organized a fundraiser for a local Black church that had burned down, but was asked to leave the island soon after due to social prejudices.
• Key life lesson: “Always do what you believe in, no matter what the consequences.”

  “Bermuda…taught me radio…But I learned this great lesson: Do what thou has to do and don’t let anybody stop you.” — Cousin Brucie [11:19]

5. Brucie’s Unique Access to Stars & Dealing with Payola

[11:38–17:13]

• Fan question from Daryl "DMC" McDaniels: What was it like introducing bands to the public?
• Early radio “eclecticism” allowed for discovery and creative freedom—lost during the Payola scandal, when DJs’ musical choices were restricted.
• On Payola: “I took [payola] once…I took two cherry pies from a promoter’s mother. Did I play the record? Oh, yeah…I didn’t think of cherry-ola.” [15:41]
• Takeaway: Real audience service means using taste and judgment rather than just playing what you’re told.

6. The Coming of the Beatles & the British Invasion

[17:13–23:52]

• Brucie was at the center of Beatlemania’s arrival in America.
• The U.S. music industry “was getting a little tired” until British bands arrived, rejuvenating it.
• Memorable anecdote: listeners instantly took on British accents and Beatles mannerisms.
• Importance of the era: It provided hope and unity in a tumultuous era— “a glimmer…that worked, and we’re still getting benefits from it.”
• Buzz: “It was really a communal experience listening, wouldn’t you say?”
  Brucie: “I believe my audience is a community. …The Beatles gave us a time to smile again.” [22:24–23:12]

7. Radio’s Evolution: Scott Muni & The FM Revolution

[23:52–27:56]

• Fond recollections of colleague Scott Muni: “Good looking guy…the women loved him…seriously took his music.”
• Describes AM’s loss of dominance, FM’s ascent, and how the formats borrowed from each other.
• The enduring power of community and personal connection in radio, whether AM, FM, or satellite.
• Recent years: recounts his relationship with John Catsimatidis, owner of WABC, who regularly called in with requests—before eventually hiring Brucie again.

8. The Secret to Passion and Longevity

[27:56–29:44]

• Brucie’s love for his work and audience hasn’t waned: “This music is my family. …My passion grows. …I talk to my friend.”
• “It’s in my soul, in my heart. …If I stop, I’m gonna have a microphone with me because I won’t stop.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Audience Connection:

  “Familiarity breeds content…people want to hear somebody they’re familiar with or comfortable with. …Times of duress…they want someone they feel comfortable with and can say, ‘this is family.’” — Cousin Brucie [06:06]

• On Radio as Performance:

  “The microphone is an instrument, but what's out there is human flesh and blood.” — Cousin Brucie [07:58]

• On Doing the Right Thing:

  “I learned a good lesson in life…always do what you believe in, no matter what the consequences were.” — Cousin Brucie [10:56]

• On Beatlemania’s Arrival:

  “Everybody decided they were Anglophiles…wanted to wear their hair [like the Beatles]…and the Beatles were here. …It was going to change the world…and it was changing it for positive means.” — Cousin Brucie [18:32]

• On Radio’s Magic:

  “We became a community. …Listening to the Beatles gave us that… gave us the time to smile again.” — Cousin Brucie [22:28]

• On Longevity and Passion:

  “As I get older, I fall more in love. My passion grows. …It’s almost my personal telephone. …It’ll never stop until I stop. And if I stop, I’m gonna have a microphone with me, because I won’t stop.” — Cousin Brucie [29:00]

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Key Timestamps

• 01:24 – Brucie’s walk companion choices
• 02:48 – Story behind “Cousin Brucie”
• 07:41 – Advice on audience engagement
• 09:16 – Bermuda radio beginnings
• 11:38 – Payola, eclecticism, and responsibility
• 17:13 – First encounters with the Beatles & British Invasion
• 22:24 – The magic and community of radio in the 1960s
• 23:52 – Remembrances of Scott Muni; AM to FM transition
• 27:56 – The “secret sauce” to passion and enthusiasm
• 29:47 – Buzz’s thanks; Brucie on community and shared love of radio

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Conclusion

A rich, personal, and joyful conversation, this episode captures the magic of music radio’s golden age through Cousin Brucie’s eyes. Beyond nostalgia, Brucie offers enduring lessons on authenticity, the paramount importance of personal connection, and maintaining unwavering passion across a legendary career. For new or seasoned listeners, it’s an affectionate celebration of the community, the music, and the “cousins” on both sides of the microphone.

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Transcript

[A]

Taking a Walk.

[B]

I'm Buzz Knight, and welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast, where we stroll down memory lane with the voices that shaped our lives. Sometimes that's a musician, and sometimes because of my past, that's a radio person. As a lover of radio, this gentleman was definitely part of my past. Today on Taking a Walk, a man whose voice didn't just fill the airwaves and it became the soundtrack of an entire generation. From WABC to WCBS FM in New York City, he's been the cousin we all wish we had. Spinning records and stories with that unmistakable enthusiasm. He introduced us to the Beatles, danced through the British invasion, and kept rock and roll alive through every decade since. Coming up next, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Cousin Brucie. Bruce Morrow on the Taking a Walk.

[A]

This is an I Heart podcast, guaranteed human podcast.

[B]

Taking a Walk, Cousin Brucy. Welcome to Taking a Walk, sir. It's an honor and thrill for me.

[A]

I wouldn't mind a person to walk right now. It's getting a little cold out. Well, thank you.

[B]

Thank you for being on so.

[A]

So if.

[B]

If you could take a walk with somebody, who would you take a walk with? Use your imagination. There's no right or wrong answer. And go wild.

[A]

My very first one came right to my mind. My very first one. My wife, my. My Jody. Jody is my. My dearest and my best friend. Now, if I had to go another step, I probably pick. Who would I pick? Let's see. That's a very interesting question. I think Paul McCartney would be one of them and Leslie Gore would be another, and Ronnie Spector. You know, it's funny as you gave that question. That's a very interesting question. No one's ever asked me that before. You start thinking about people that you lost. Obviously, if I had to name a historic person, I probably want to talk to Benjamin Franklin. Oh, I'd want to know about that kite with the key on it, if that's true, you know. But that's a very interesting question. That's something. I think it's like the genie in the bottle. You have three wishes, you use two. I'd be very careful with that.

[B]

Well, the answers go all over the place for sure. So that's what's wonderful about it.

[A]

My wife number one, without any. Any question.

[B]

I'll make sure that she knows that you said that. So you can stay out of hot water with Jody.

[A]

I can use a little.

[B]

Well, tell me how you became cousin. Tell me the origin of cousin.

[A]

It's kind of a fun story. That I love to tell. It actually happened in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, right? My name, of course, is. Well, not of course, but it's Bruce Morrow. Most people think my last name is Brucie. You know, with Cousin Brucie, I was in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel going home. We lived in Brooklyn at that time. In the middle of the tunnel, I saw. This was very strange, but this is how things happen in life. I saw a flower growing out. A little daisy or something. Yellow flower growing out of the wall of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. I didn't think it was any significance. And then suddenly I heard a chime. And it said, cousin, Cousin Brucey. Drive carefully, cousin. Cousin. And I didn't think anything of it. I just thought, you know, it was just some silly daydream or something. And I drove home. And that evening, in my dreams, I had this boys come back again. Cousin Brucey. Well, needless to say, the next morning and I got on the phone with the program director. I said, you know, from now on, I got a little message. I think I want to be called Cousin Brucie. And he said to me, and I almost quote, are you out of your dash. Dash mind? That is the corniest thing I've ever heard in my life. He said, son, I was like what, 20 some odd years old. He said, son, this is the Big Apple. This is not cheese. Quaker of Morgantown, West Virginia, this is New York City. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I said, you know, Mr. Leeds, we all love our cousins. We all want to go to our cousin's house and be with our aunts and uncle. They give us the best treats and best food and toys. Let me try it. So he gave some thought on the phone and he said, all right, come in and see me. I went to see him that day and he said, some. You can try it tonight, but don't overdo it. Because if you overdo it and you get in trouble for that corn, I'm going to fire you. And I was scared. Civ. I don't know what fireman. I thought maybe he would hit me or something. And, well, that night. You know, you don't tell a kid from Brooklyn to try something. If I decided I'm going to do it, I'm doing full speed ahead, right? Put up the power. That night I went on. I guess every other word was cousin. I mean, I cousin them here, I cousin them there. I shoved that word in everywhere. Well, the next morning, buzz, here we go. I get a call at 6am and he said to me, the program director, Bruce, get your blah, blah, blah in. I don't even say those words, although today it's very, very mild. Get in here right now. I said, well, and I got scared. I called my father because I thought I was going to go and I'm going to get fired and he's going to smack me or something, hit me. I didn't know. My dad went in with me and I'll try to make this a little shorter now. My dad went in and said, Mr. Lee, what's, what's the problem? He says, your son. I told him last night not to overdo it and he overdid it. I'm letting, I'm going to fire him. So my father said, well, why? He says, I want you to see something. He opens the door to his desk and he pulls out hundreds of Western Union telegrams, member of Western Union, almost many precursors before the Internet. And he throws these yellow pieces of paper on the desk. So my father, being a very astute street guy from the East New York, said, well, seems to me that's pretty good response. Why would you want to fire him? I'd hire him. She said, I'm firing, but I'm putting him under a 10 year contract. The response was overwhelming. People liked it. You know, people want familiarity. I have a buzz. I have a saying, an expression. Familiarity breeds content. And it really does. I found that out. And people want to hear somebody they're familiar with or comfortable with. Times of duress, times of national disaster, international disaster, personal problems, very important. They want somebody they feel comfortable with and they say, you know, this is family. So my whole adage, my whole belief and what I do is personal, family, audience, technology comes after that. And I come after that somewhere like that. So I learned how to become a cousin. I learned how to become very, very personal with people. So when I go on the air, cousin buds, like I'm talking to you one on one right now. There might be a lot of people, there are a lot of people listening all over the world now because technology has changed everything. I am talking to one person. I learned that a long time ago. I might be talking to 2 or 3 million, but I'm talking to one person. And that's how my whole, my whole belief, my whole follow through of what my career has gone and to this day, that's what I practice.

[B]

That's an important lesson for those listening who might be podcasters, might be musicians, might be radio people. You just touched on a very important part of communicating and Engaging with an audience, which is not an easy thing, as you know.

[A]

No, it is not. It's very difficult. That's one of the big lessons to learn, which I learned when I first started my career in Bermuda. I learned that, you know, the microphone is a. An instrument, but what's out there is human flesh and blood. And you have to be aware of the audience. You know, I. I get on the. The air, I. I'm interviewed many times during the week, and a lot of the people that interview me are reading notes. And right away I'm thinking, no, this is not good. And it's not. You and I are talking one on one. And it's just very natural. When you start reading notes, you're not listening. You're reading your next question. What am I going to ask them next? Or what am I? And you're not listening to what the person you're interviewing is saying. And when I'm on the air with my cousins who call me in for Elvis or call me in for Bruno Mars or whatever they're calling me in for, they're asking questions and they're feeling. They're feeling something. They want a response. And if you don't listen, you start getting involved with other things. You're not doing your job.

[B]

Amen. Amen to that. So you brought up Bermuda, and I know Bermuda played a central role in your beginning, certainly, and it wasn't necessarily pretty, that whole story.

[A]

No, I went through some heck. I don't know if you've ever seen my first book, my sort of an. A semi autobiography. I say semi because I had a writer with me, Laura Boudo, and we wrote about my early days. I Wish I released it now was published too fast. I got over there. I didn't know. I was a young kid. I don't know how old I was, but I was very young. Never was away from home before Buzz. And I was very inexperienced. Inexperienced on the air, but very different than anybody else. So I got on. They used to call me the Hammer in Bermuda, and I spent a year there. They called me the Hammer because I talk like the music. And I helped bring rock and roll music to that once very quiet island. I sort of disturbed the flora and the fauna over there. So I talked very fast and got involved with the local listeners and got very involved, in fact, too involved. And that time, that beautiful island was a little different. They didn't. They didn't recognize certain ethnicities. And I did a show at a church, a black church that burned down. I wanted to Raise some money for them. And by that time, I had some Bruce power. It wasn't Brucey yet, Bruce power. And I raised some money for them. And then I was invited to leave the island very quickly, as they weren't happy with what I did. Well, I left. And at that day at the airport, a lot of people came down from that church to see me off. I learned a good lesson in life, right? Always do what you believe in, no matter what the consequences were. And I think that experience really awakened me. You know, growing up in New York, we're very. How do I say it? Protected. We have a suit of armor around us, and we don't realize what's happening in the real world. Well, I found out very quickly. I found out quickly. I found out about my religion. I found out about the black situation that I already read about in the newspapers, and it wasn't real. So Bermuda, besides teaching me radio, which it did, and television those days, very early television, I learned this great lesson. Do what thou has to do and don't let anybody stop you.

[B]

That's tremendous. I recently recorded a segment for one of our podcasts with Daryl Run DMC McDaniels, who is a big fan of yours and certainly a big fan, as he was growing up, of wabc. He talks about that often. So I have a question from Daryl for you. He said, ask Brucie. What was the best thing about him having access to all those artists and bands and being able to be the one to share the music with everybody on a daily basis?

[A]

Well, right away, Susie, I'm listening to what you're saying, and I think the word eclecticism came into my mind, right? Being eclectic allowed by the suits, the guys upstairs, the bean counters, you know, And I'm not being too nasty with them because I was one, too. I owned many radio stations that allowed me freedom of choice, freedom to select, freedom to produce and perform the way I see fit, doing what I want to do and saying what I want to do. Now, Buzz, this was not always the case. We went through, as you remember, a pretty tough time in our business called the Pay Elro scandals. Now, during that terrible time when we were accused, and rightly so, of taking commercial bribery, which probably every industry in the world has some sort of commercial bribery to this day. We were accused of doing that. So the executives took the freedoms away. We had music meetings, and the music meetings were a farce anyhow, because they picked all the records for us to vote on. So that was ridiculous. So I lost my time of freedom For a while. And that not only affected my audience, it did because I wasn't allowed to discover in those days, new bands. Because today, as you know, I rely upon music of the 50s, 60s, and a touch of the 70s. Like I say, in the air. And that's what I love. I love that music because I believe those three decades are the best decades of the development of contemporary music, rock and roll, and to this day. So we lost that freedom for a while. It was a very tough time. And of course, the politicians loved it. They got headlines. One was easier than going after people that are on the air, that are in the public light. The newspapers loved it. It sold a lot of newspapers. It got them good advertising. So it was an unfair time because they went after us. Unfairly? Was it justified? Oh, yeah. I mean, I was a kid now. I was very lucky. Cousin Buzz. I was very lucky because I was too young to really get involved. Might I have gotten involved in bayola? Very possibly. Everybody was. It was one of those things. I saw crates of booze. I saw television sets. I saw a car delivered to somebody. And I have. You know, I have all these memories and I have names. I have. And I saw this happening, but I didn't understand it. And I was too young to get involved. And also, I was brought up not to cheat. And I really believed that in those days. Now a little bit helps. It's like a little salt and pepper. Once in a while, you know, look the other way, but, you know, nothing that can hurt anybody. I took paola once. I'm going to admit it to you, I took two cherry pies. There was a record promoter whose mother was a baker, and he said, gee, I'd love you to play my record here. My mother sent you two cherry pies. I wonder why. No, I said, I love cherry pies. It's one of my favorites. I took the cherry pies. Did I play the record? Oh, yeah. Hey, he gave me cherry pies. I didn't think of cherry Ola or anything like that. So that was my one guilty moment. And I still remember that. But the thing is, I remember all these things, and as far as I can say, if I had the power, I would never let it all happen again. I think music, as in any industry, it has to be deserved for going on the air or being produced. And you have to vet something. You have to look at something very carefully. To this day, Buzz, I take what I do extremely seriously when I go on the air. Oh, I'm silly. Once in a while, I Have a good time. I never get blue. I get a little naughty once in a while. But the main thing is I am aware of my audience and I know what they need. I feel them. Because when I talk on the air, I'm talking to you right now, cousin Buzz. And that's what it is. I'm talking to an individual. You know, there was an old story years ago, I remember some professor or somebody was asked, how do you not get nervous on the. In front of an audience? How do you get used to that? And he said to them, concentrate on one person in the audience. Make believe they're naked. Right? It worked. So I don't think my audience is naked. I'm sure they're wearing underwear. Listen to me. But very funny adage. And if you think about it, it works. You know, concentrate on the audience. Concentrate on a person. That's it. We'll be right back with more. The Taking a Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk podcast.

[B]

You were at the epicenter when the Beatles landed in America. What was it like being in the room when that happened? Literally introducing rock and roll history, music history as it unfolded.

[A]

You know, it was a very wonderful time and a very lucky time for the American music industry. In those days, the American music industry was getting, oh, a little tired. A little tired. We're doing the same thing. You know, there's an adage, I guess, in corporate America, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it ain't broke, don't fixed it. They never fixed it. So, you know, we're playing the same stuff and over and over you get some. Once in a while there's a. A bright light of sunshine. But generally I was getting tired. And here overseas, a couple. Four guys are causing riots and causing wildness everywhere. And I start getting new records. I think it was from Swamp Records, Swan Records and vj. And it was a group called the Beatles. And then I started getting other British groups. So little by little, but the Beatles took. Took the spotlight. And in our music meetings, I remember it was said, how can these, how dare they, these British upstarts, take our Chuck Berry and our Jerry Lee Lewis and our Everly Brothers and our Four Seasons and emulate them. Well, we didn't realize till a little while later that they were saving the music industry, our music industry, and enhancing theirs. Well, we started playing it and of course, the reaction was immediately, I'll give you a cute story. One of your stories is kind of cute to show you the reaction of an audience to The Beatles, when they first started coming over on Pan Am, Flight 101. Remember Pan Am? Yeah, 101. When McCartney looked down in the street and said, jonathan, I don't see any diamonds in the streets. Like that kind of thing. Because they were coming over and he. You know, I think they were referring to the sidewalks. The cement that shined a little bit because it had silicone in it. I mean, he looked for diamonds. They were coming over and I used to get phone calls. We started playing their music, the early music. I want to hold your hand, Please, please me and things like that. And it hit right away. People started listening to it. So here's a guy, two weeks before the arrival of the Beatles, this guy would call me. His name is John. Hey, Brucey. Hey, how you doing, man? I'm John from the Bronx. I live on the Grand Concourse. Would you play a record for McGoyle? Her name is Susie. Sweet Susie. Play something by Jerry Lee Lewis, will you? Thanks, man. You are. You're the ginchiest guy. All right, that's two weeks. Two weeks pass, Buzz. Two weeks. The Beatles are all over the place. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing a picture of John, Paul, George and Ringo. That same man calls me. That same young man calls me John. And this is me on the phone with John. And this is what he sounds like. And I say, hello, this is Cousin Brucie. He says, hello, this is Sir John of the Bronx Shire, of the Grand Concourse Shire. Would you play a record for me and me Bird? Her name is Lady Sue Sunshine, and I'd like to hear a record by the Beatles. Thank you very much, your lordship. Ta ta. Now you're laughing, but this is very close to what happened. Everybody decided they were Anglophiles. Everybody adopted the British accent. Although if you listen to the Beatles, the early Beatle records, you don't hear an accent. Very strange when music comes around, you can lose an accident. And it happened. But everybody wanted to wear their hair the way they were wearing it. They dressed like them, they spoke like them, they ate like them, and of course they. They sounded like them. And the Beatles were here. And it was the start of this revolution. It was going to change the whole world. And it was changing it for positive means because, boy, we were in deep trouble. We had assassinations. Our president, Martin Luther King, racial violence was much worse than it is now. It's not over, but, you know, we're still. It was much, much better politically. We were starting to realize what's going on. And the youth movement was really starting the youth movement, realized they had such great power. And I think we owe that really to the enlightenment. And not only the Beatles, but that whole we called British Invasion. And it was a good time. It was a wonderful time and affected what I was playing.

[B]

It was an amazing time. I was listening to you during that period and just fascinated by the magic of wabc, the lightning in a bottle that WABC had. I remember it was an event that you all created and covered because it was such a moment of importance. What made in your opinion, that era so magical. And it was really communal experience listening, wouldn't you say?

[A]

Yes, absolutely. And I think the word communal is excellent because I use the word, well, getting together. Community, communal, community. I use that all the time. I believe my. My audience is a community. I am part of that community. So that's when it really started. We became a community. We had something to latch our thinking on and listening to the Beatles gave us that. And then of course the Stones came and Hermits. Hermits and Dave Clark 5 and the Kinks and On and on and on, which I still play to this very day. You know, Buzz, at one time I forgot, which I. I should remember the date, but I do not. The Beatles had. They garnered the top five songs in a row number and Billboard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a row. And everything else went down. Everything else went down. They established a huge beachfront and then everybody followed them. It was at a very essential time in my development, in the audience's development. The audience now had something to listen to and to emulate and to enjoy very much. He gave us the time to smile again. We weren't smiling too much in those days. That was very. A very serious time. Very serious time. And here was a glimmer, a glimmer of hope. And it worked. It's still working. We're still getting benefits from it.

[B]

We certainly are. Besides listening to you and that entire great radio station during that period, I would get to listen to this gentleman by the name of Scott Muni. And then I would get the chance to work with Scott Muni as I work part time at WNEW fm when he had gone over there. Talk about your memories of Scott Muni.

[A]

Well, we worked together many years on wabc. And you know, he was a good looking guy, a young guy. I remember the women loved him, right? And he had that gravelly voice. I guess most of the women thought it was very sexy. He was a very nice guy who took his music very seriously. And then eventually things changed in our Business and he moved to another radio station which was a little more, I guess, on the adult side. We were top 40 at WNEW sort of borrowed many things. In fact, everybody borrowed from top 40 after a while. The whole FM syndrome, which was where FM, their top 40, your kids stations that didn't last too long because they realized in order to get a listenership and therefore get sponsorship, they had to borrow a little bit from somebody that had something that showed success and it was called top 40 radio. So all these FM stations, these snotty nose in the air FM stations started little by little putting some top 40 gizmos and gadgets in like they were doing. And it worked. There was a nice, nice meeting, a melding of what we were all doing. And that's where radio was going. But it was a good time, scary time for me because I saw that AM radio was going to be at that time in trouble, that there was this new loaf of bread in town called fm, which was not new. It has roots back to the 30s. And you can look history wise and see when FM was developed, it just stopped because of World War II, the military took over those frequencies. But it was a good thing that had happened. It was moving on, moving on and connecting and combining this thing, making this new community. And here we are today, and I'm still doing it. A gentleman named John Castamatides, who he's kind of interesting story. When I was on Sirius xm, I was on Sirius for many, many years, enjoying it. It was this new medium, satellite radio, and I was reaching all over the country and it was kind of fun and I had my freedom once again. And every Saturday I was on the air this time, I think four or five times a week. And every, every Saturday this gentleman would call me from his car with his wife. He said his name was John, his wife was Margo. I didn't know who they were. And they would request songs very, you know, very honestly. They were really nice, nice to me. I played the songs for him. Oh, maybe a year passes by and somebody gets on the phone with me, says, by the way, you know that man that calls you almost every Saturday, John something or other? I said, yeah. He said, well, he just bought wabc. I said, what? Yeah, this is what happened. I said, what do you mean he bought wabc? How do you buy, how does a man buy WABC which was like, you know, Cornerstone or the historic block of broadcasting. And he bought it, sure enough. And within a couple days I get a call from John Costa Mattides he wants to talk to me. And let me make a long story short, I'm still with him, and he just offered me my. I just signed another contract. He offered me a contract till I was 140. I love it. I love it. Explain to him. I don't think that's going to happen. You're going to have him wheeling me in on a wheelbarrow with some dust. I said, I think let's go a few years at a time. I love it.

[B]

So, Cousin Brucie, the last question for you. You clearly love what you do to this day. You have the passion and enthusiasm of somebody who is a teenager starting out. Tell me, what is the secret sauce to that passion and enthusiasm?

[A]

I. Buzz, I love what I do, just like you do. I look forward to getting on my microphone, which is sitting right here on my desk. I. I can't wait to talk to my cousins. And I know it sounds corny, like cousin, but it's not. I have a. An innate love for the music. This is the music I grew up with. The music is my family. I'm very careful what I select, and I'm very careful what my audience selects. I get. We get a lot of phone calls, and we're now reaching the globe. You know, as you know, we're streaming at an. I'm a morning show in Tokyo. I get all kinds of letters from Tokyo. My God, Tokyo. I mean, amazing. And they're all requesting our genre of music, right? So this love continues. And as I get older, I'd fall more in love. My passion. My passion grows. And it's fun, but it's a light passion. It's nice, it's friendly. And I get on my microphone, which is almost my personal telephone, and I talk to my friend. Friend. There's friends out there, but I talk to my friend. So that continues. I'm very lucky. I have that in me. I have that in me. It's in my soul, in my heart. And I just go on with this romance, and it'll never stop until I stop. And if I stop, I'm gonna have a microphone with me because I won't stop.

[B]

Cousin Brucie, I love you for everything that you continue to give us, everything that you've given me. As one of your. One of your listeners, I'm fortunate that I took that passion of listening to you and turned it into a career. And I'm grateful for everything that you continue to give me, Cousin.

[A]

Well, Cousin Buzz, I am thrilled there are people like you that love radio the way I do and because without guys like you, this would not be possible. It's possible because the love is out there. I can feel this community. Thank you so much for all those wonderful questions and I love visiting with you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast.

[B]

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[B]

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[A]

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